The Academia Sectrorum Naturae, the first scientific community, was fo

Question

The Academia Sectrorum Naturae, the first scientific community, was founded in  1560, and in order to be included in membership, you had to discover a new law of nature, a prerequisite for admission .

A. 1560, and in order to be included in membership, you had to discover a new law of nature, a prerequisite for admission

B. 1560, and included a prerequisite for admission: in order to be included, you had to have made the discovery of a new law of nature

C. 1560 with a prerequisite for admission: the discovery of a new law of nature

D. the year 1560, including the prerequisite that to be admitted, you needed to have discovered a new law of nature

E. 1560 with the rule that in order to be admitted for membership, you had to discover a new law of nature, that was the prerequisite

gmatter0913 · Answer

IMO B

Intended Meaning: The prerequisite for one's admission is that one has to discover a new law of nature.

A - new law of nature seems to be the prerequisite for admission. <Wrong Meaning>
B - seems okay but lengthy. (assumed the second "included" is a typo; instead, it has to be "admitted")
C - wrong meaning again
D - okay
E - wrong modifier (seems like membership is the prerequisite; the modifiers are messed up)

So, we are down to B and D.

In option D, "needed to have" seems odd. Option B has correct tense - "had to have made"

pqhai · Answer

The Academia Sectrorum Naturae, the first scientific community, was founded in  1560, and in order to be included in membership, you had to discover a new law of nature, a prerequisite for admission.

A. 1560, and in order to be included in membership, you had to discover a new law of nature, a prerequisite for admission 
 Wrong.  Parallelism problem: "and" is parallel marker, but "was founded in 1950" and "in order to be included in membership" are NOT parallel.

B. 1560, and included a prerequisite for admission: in order to be included, you had to have made the discovery of a new law of nature 
 Wrong.  The usage of colon  ":"  means you're explaining for something ==> Present simple tense is enough. But in B, "you had to" means past tense. Hence, B is wrong.

C. 1560 with a prerequisite for admission: the discovery of a new law of nature 
  Correct.   
"with a prerequisite ...." just modifies the subject "The Academia Sectrorum Nature". Does not change meaning. 
After a colon ":", you can use noun/noun phrase/clause. Because the part after the colon is just an explanation for something before the colon.
Other example: Medication X was initiated in 1990 with the main purpose: helping human being live longer.

D. the year 1560, including the prerequisite that to be admitted, you needed to have discovered a new law of nature
 Wrong.  
"the year 1560" is wordy, "in 1560" is enough.
" including the prerequisite that to be admitted" is not grammatical;
"you needed to have discovered" is bad grammar.

E. 1560 with the rule that in order to be admitted for membership, you had to discover a new law of nature, that was the prerequisite
 Wrong.  
"you had" means past tense. But the sentence just wants to explain a rule in general, so present simple tense is better.
"that" refers to "a new law of nature" incorrectly.

Hope it helps.

aditya8062 · Answer

if option C is really the answer then i feel that the intended meaning is very awkward . the implied meaning of C is that  The academia secretorum naturae  was founded  with the intention  of having a prerequisite for admission,a meaning that does not make any sense !!. institute can  have  a prerequisite for admission and so  this fact  should have been presented with a parallelism .also institutes are opened with much broader  intentions  and not with such narrow intentions as is described in option C 
i don't feel good about this question !!

desaichinmay22 · Answer

B seems an appropriate sentence. Option C alters the meaning of original sentence and doesn't convey who needs to fulfill the prerequisite.

aditya8062 · Answer

honestly i really do not believe into the theory of  "meaning of original sentence"  ,because 80 % of the time option A is wrong !! so there is no reason as why i should preserve the original meaning but yes, as i have said, i find meaning of C awkward

mikemcgarry · Answer

Dear Sukant2010 & aditya8062 , I'm happy to respond. :-)

This is a truly horrible question. This question apparently was written by someone who had absolutely no understanding of the rigorous standards of the GMAT. I could see, maybe, testing the colloquial " you " mistake in one answer choice, but testing this in four answer choices is preposterous. The OA, (C) , indeed is awkward. This doesn't have the feel of the types of splits the real GMAT would use. This question is an unremitting disaster. I would caution you here. While's it's true that 80% of the time, (A) is wrong, nevertheless, the real GMAT communicates clearly a meaning in (A) , and it is very important not to change that meaning. This is not a "theory" --- this is part and parcel of how the question is structured. The problem comes with looking at low quality practice questions, such as this one --- in many ways, these questions can be quite misleading, because they fall so short of the high standards of the GMAT. Does all this make sense? Mike :-)

AR15J · Answer

Please explain why C is the correct choice? I think it lost the intended meaning. These facts are not so closely related and should be written in the form of independent clauses.

1. A community was founded
2. Criteria to be its member

What is wrong with choice A?

I found choice A better than c

sayantanc2k · Answer

In A it appears that the rule is applicable only for "you", the person spoken to, not in general for anybody. Though in colloquial language, we often use such style, in official language such usage is not acceptable.

Moreover if an option uses fewer words to express the same idea, it is considered better.

daagh · Answer

The Academia Sectrorum Naturae, the first scientific community, was founded in  1560, and in order to be included in membership, you had to discover a new law of nature, a prerequisite for admission.

A. 1560, and in order to be included in membership, you had to discover a new law of nature, a prerequisite for admission 
B. 1560, and included a prerequisite for admission: in order to be included, you had to have made the discovery of a new law of nature 
C. 1560 with a prerequisite for admission: the discovery of a new law of nature 
D. the year 1560, including the prerequisite that to be admitted, you needed to have discovered a new law of nature
E. 1560 with the rule that in order to be admitted for membership, you had to discover a new law of nature, that was the prerequisite

By mentioning the word "prerequisite", the intent of the topic is that if one wants to be admitted into the ASN, then one must have already discovered something new. One cannot say that he will enter ASN and then discover something new in the following years.

A and E say "you had to discover' but not "had to have discovered". They are straight out. In C, the noun phrase after colon doesn't seem to make clear whether the new discovery is an already made one or it is going to be made later. Thus, it misses the intent of the issue.

The main contention is between B and D, and both seem to be good or bad; both use the conversational 'you', not seen in GMAT.

B abounds in jarring redundancies. D is wordy with the inclusion of 'the year 1560' rather than '1560'. However, in D, the verb+ing "including" is indeed an apt modifier in that it is an additional information to the main intent of revealing the timeline of the founding year of ASN. Perhaps D is the best among the lot.

VerbalBot · Answer

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